My own mother always taught me that fairness was a family value - I think equal pay is about fairness for everyone.

Growing up I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in you gotta stand in the doorway.

I understand what it's like to come with your family and to uproot yourself and come to another culture. You need a lot of support. People say 'She's got her daughter she's got her husband.' Yeah but she hasn't got anyone else.

My wife my family my friends - they've all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell loving someone is about giving not receiving.

I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters.

I came from a poor family so working and going to school at the same time was natural. It taught me multi-tasking although we didn't call it that back then. I learned I could never be idle I need to be doing many things at once.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start but where you're going. That's family values.

My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity her compassion her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

Like all my family and class I considered it a sign of weakness to show affection to have been caught kissing my mother would have been a disgrace and to have shown affection for my father would have been a disaster.

Denzel's quality I think is his faith. You have all the action in your head and you have to believe in it and just do it. That's what he does and that's what he taught me to do.